Humanitarian foundation of human capital: theoretical insights and regional explication

Abstract

Stable, growing development of the Far East is designed to ensure the national projects of the Russian Federation currently being implemented, one of which is «Culture». Its emphasis on strengthening civic identity on the basis of spiritual, moral and cultural values is fundamentally important. Since the key resource for achieving national goals and solving strategic tasks is human capital, it is no coincidence that this phenomenon is in the focus of the research attention of theorists and experts. The concept of «human capital», initiated by American scientists in the middle of the 20th century to solve the urgent economic problems, not only started a new direction in the world economic thought, but also provoked a controversy on the part of humanitarians regarding the correctness of using this phrase as a concept in an anthropological perspective. They saw in this phrase a loss of orientation towards the harmonic integrity of the universally self-fulfilling man. An analysis of the epistemological field formed by the problems of the phenomenon under study showed that the human capital theory developers did not claim to create a new anthropology based on economic knowledge and the competencies formed by it. At the same time, the critical position of the humanitarians is not groundless, as its supporters believed that the concept of «human capital» contains risks fraught with the human identity deformation due to the absolutization of economic determinism, emphasizing pragmatic prudence and not so much rationality. Humanitarians hated the assertion, driven by financial investments in the education, that the knowledge acquired in its process does not turn a person into a bearer of cultural values, but into a means of production, subject to depreciation and, therefore, replacement. We believe that it is possible to neutralize the noted risks by recognizing the humanities as the foundation of human capital. The humanitarian knowledge, philosophy, and art included in its content are aimed at the formation and strengthening of the completeness and harmonious integrity of human existence.